Fireworks launched with the flip of a switch

Many people enjoy setting off fireworks on the Fourth of July, and this usually requires lighting each individual fuse to get the desired result.

Professional fireworks shows also used to have personnel lighting individual fuses, but as is the case with so much these days, technology has changed things considerably. Now, the flip of a switch can send hundreds of mortars into the air.

Tamara Stewart and her husband, Nathan, are the owners of Grandpa’s Feed & Pet Supply in Waldport. But in addition to their day jobs, they are involved in some explosive night work.

Tamara, with help from Nathan, was the pyrotechnics operator in charge of Newport’s annual fireworks display over Yaquina Bay on the Fourth of July. She used to also do the annual show in Waldport on July 3, but she has since trained a separate crew to handle that. In addition, she will be overseeing the fireworks display at the Toledo Summer Festival later this month.

Stewart first started doing this side gig about 20 years ago.

“I got involved with fireworks when I was with the fire department in Toledo,” she said. “I was a firefighter in Toledo for 10 years, and as I was doing standby one year they were shorthanded and asked if I wanted to help. I started helping them (at the Summer Festival) and have been doing it ever since.”

Stewart works directly through Western Display Fireworks in Canby. “You have to take classes, you have to take tests to be certified as a pyrotechnics operator, you have to shoot so many shows per year, (and) you have to keep your license up through continuing education,” she said.

In Newport, Stewart had other certified pyrotechnic operators helping her out with the show, which was launched from the Port of Newport International Terminal. People began the setup on July 3, unloading 73 cases of fireworks, installing the tubes to fire the mortars, and eventually getting everything wired up to a main switchboard. She and family members spent the night on site in their trailer to keep watch over things.

The setup process is quite detailed. The entire show is choreographed, with a list of all the fireworks that will be shot off, in what order, and with a description of each one. The list was many pages long.

“There are 371 pins that will be switched,” Stewart said prior to the start of the show. “Each one is anything from a single 4-inch shell to like part of the finale, this one pin, 371, is 300 simultaneous instant boxes at once. So that’s 300 shots at the same time, all with one flip of the switch.”

One of the boxes contained 600 1-inch mortars. “When that one goes off, it actually has a matching one down at the other end, so there’s going to be 1,200 shots going off at once,” she said. “And then while those are going off, other bigger ones are going to be going off as well. Some are chained together, so with one fuse, 10 mortars go up at once.”

The switchboard is capable of triggering as many as 400 launches. “Four hundred is the max,” Stewart said. “If we did all of them single, we’d be over that, and that’s why there’s several of them where we’re firing two or three items off at the same time.”

The show began promptly at 10 p.m. on the Fourth of July, and thousands of fireworks were launched in about 20 minutes. Stewart was asked if there are ever mortars that have to be disposed of because they failed to fire. “Very little,” she said. “I try to touch everything off during the show or right after the show.” That is done by walking around the launch site with a road flare to ignite them by hand if necessary.

As another successful fireworks display ended with that final bang, applause could be heard from the many spectators gathered around the bay to watch the show. For Stewart, the job wasn’t finished until the next day. She spent another night on the site and did cleanup the following morning.

“We pick up all the boxes,” she said of the cleanup work. “The city comes in with their street sweeper in the morning and cleans up all the other stuff. They take care of that part for me, which is wonderful.”

And when asked what keeps her coming back to do fireworks shows year after year in Lincoln County, Stewart said, “I love to do it.”